Giving Thanks

I have so much to be thankful for this year. Let me see if I can begin to give thanks for all that I have..

1. A loving God who is bigger that I can fathom, loves me more than I can possibly imagine, and has an awesome plan for my life.
2. The most amazing husband ever who takes out the trash, listens when I talk endlessly about work and my kiddos, buys me flowers for "no special reason", always puts his family before work, and is the greatest Daddy-O ever!!!
   
3. The cutest little Stink Pot (AKA Noah) a Mama could ask for who is smiley, opinionated, cuddly, laid back, curious and most of all a fighter.
4. The most supportive parents, siblings and sisters-in-law who always encourage me, lift me up, appreciate the necessity of tradition, and continually make me laugh (mostly with them, but occasionally at them).
5. The greatest in-laws who ask questions, make special trips to visit us, and raised my husband to be an amazing Man of God.
6. The awesome women in my life who love me, laugh and cry with me, share their mommy stories with me, and let me know that I'm never alone.
   
7. The craziest co-workers and bosses who truly do believe that "We Are Family"!
8. The greatest set of doctors who are patient to answer all my questions, treat my little guy with loving hands, and are fighting so hard for him.
9. The roof over my head, food in my pantry, clothes in my closet, and breath in my lungs.

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of turkey, laughter and love.

Play with Your Food

Noah met with a new Occupational Therapist on Wednesday. She did a two hour evaluation on his oral and fine motor skills. She gave us several exercises to do with Noah's face to help build strength in his muscles as well as told us that Noah needs to, "play with his food every day". Well, OK. Here we go...Noah's not sure what he thinks about chicken and rice.Notice how Mama strategically coordinated Noah's shirt color with the color of his food.This whole food thing might not be all that bad.

New Hat

What do you do with an empty 2 x 2 box (the gauze squares that go under his trach)? You put it on your head, of course.I'm just the coolest thing around!

Sad Day

Yes...it was a very sad day. We officially had to move Noah Man out of his infant car seat into a toddler car seat. He reached the height and weight limits a few weeks ago and we unfortunately had to move on.

If that wasn't the worst, we also had to say good-bye to Noah's stroller. If one can have a love affair with a stroller, I definitely had one with this Maclaren.It is a stroller base that the car seat just sits upon. It has an incredibly HUGE basket underneath that was able to hold Noah's suction machine, apnea monitor, extra trachs, extra trach supplies, G-Tube supplies, medication, food, etc. One could honestly fit a small country in the basket of this stroller. The greatest part about this stroller was that it folded up into a small, compact, umbrella-like fold that was so easy to move in and out of the car. If I could have folded Noah up and crammed him into his old car seat, I would have just to keep the old stroller. But, alas, I did have to say good-bye. Tears!

Noah's new stroller is...nice. No, it really is. It has enough storage to hold the things we need. It reclines so he can nap. It is not too heavy. It folds up relatively small. It allows my little man to see the world, which he just loves. I like my new stroller. I do. Really I do.
Perhaps if I say it enough, I might actually believe it.

Yeah!

Noah began clapping several weeks ago. He thinks it is quite funny. Initially, he would clap with two fists. Recently, he started to open one hand and clap the other fist. Today, we were able to capture his first clapping with two open hands. So cool!

And yes, our bed is normally made, but this morning was one of those crazy mornings.